If you're running Apache, you can do this using mod_rewrite [google.com]. I recommend doing it in the httpd.conf rather than .htaccess if possible, because I suspect the performance would be a little better.

You will have to check the documentation for your CMS. There is no universal way to do this.

It requires TWO things:

1. mod_rewrite gets requests redirected from the "friendly names" to the actual CMS script.

2. The CMS itself has to change the way it formats internal links, so that it uses the "friendly names".

If your CMS does not support friendly names, then you cannot do this.

The CMS itself has to change the way it formats internal links

Actually yeah, that's true. Otherwise the friendly names won't really get used. IMO, all CMS's should use friendly names, but I'm sure many don't have the option.